106 FIRST STUDIES IN PLANT LIFE 



is planned so as to avoid dusting its stigma with its 

 own pollen. 



2. All flowers are not like the geranium in this. 

 Many flowers, nay, most flowers, use their own pollen 

 for making seed ; but most of the finest flowers send 

 away their pollen to other plants, and get pollen from 

 them in return. 



3. And now you have another question ready : ""Why 

 can't a flower be a fine flower if it use its own pollen 

 for making seed ?" 



4. Mixed races in men and flowers. Well, I 

 reply, you have seen the same thing in your History 

 lessons. The finest races in the world's history 

 are those that have not kept to themselves, but 

 have mixed their blood with that of other races. 

 How many kinds of man have gone to the making of 

 an Englishman? If the English had been able to 

 keep themselvee to themselves in their little island, 

 would they have been great to-day? Eaces that do 

 not easily mix with other races remain in the back- 

 ground ; just as flowers that cannot be crossed easily 

 with others are likely to remain among the weeds. If 

 I told you all that the garden owes to the mixture of 

 flowers, I should fill up many chapters ; and so let me 

 show you instead what our geranium flower has gained 

 by giving and receiving pollen. 



5. The long flower-stalk. First of all, oui-^ 

 geranium may owe its long flower-stalk to this, 

 because a flower that uses its own pollen has no need 

 to get high up in the air to be seen by bees and flies. 

 The flowers that use their own pollen are often so low 

 down, or so much hid among the green leaves that it 

 is hard to see them. Many a man never notices the 



